


Shine On, Harvest Moon

by QuixoticRobotics



Category: Hadestown - Mitchell
Genre: Autistic Orpheus, F/M, Fluff without Plot, Happy Ending AU, I ALMOST GOT TO PUT PERSEPHONE IN THIS BUT HAD TO CUT IT, I WILL HAVE MORE AUNT PERSEPHONE STTUFF, I will, breif mention of verbal abuse, cptsd eurydice, eurydice has not had a fun life, now with more
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-21
Updated: 2019-09-21
Packaged: 2020-10-25 12:09:22
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,526
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20723975
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/QuixoticRobotics/pseuds/QuixoticRobotics
Summary: Eurydice assumed she'd hate fall.





	Shine On, Harvest Moon

She hadn’t expected to like fall. When she imagined what it would be like she imagined bare trees and crumpled, dead leaves blowing by on gusts of wind whistling impending doom. An entire season for Spring and Summer’s hard work to wither and rot and die, drawing out the dread that came with the Winter.    
  
She hadn’t been able to accompany Orpheus and Hermes to the train station to bid farewell to Persephone. Orpheus had seemed to have been expecting her to. That made sense, she supposed. Hermes and Persephone were Orpheus’s family, when she and Orpheus had been married, She’d joined that family. 

She didn’t feel like she was very good at it, being part of a family. Things between her and Persephone had felt tense and formal. Eurydice knew she had no reason to be nervous around Persephone, she hadn’t even expected to be. But in some part of her brain she was still working back in Hadestown, and this was still the ruler she served under.    
  
Eurydice had been embarrassed by this, but Persephone was understanding. Sure she was eager to reach out and get to know her nephew’s beloved, but understood Eurydice’s discomfort, Which Eurydice was very grateful for.   
  
If Orpheus was disappointed by Eurydice couldn’t be brave enough to go to the train station, he’d done a good job hiding it.    
  
There wasn’t much to do in their small house. They had a tiny cellar, which she went and checked to make sure the food they’d stored in jars was, in fact, still there. Eurydice still could not get used to the idea of having enough of anything. She probably came off like she was preparing for the end of the world.    
  
But their tiny blue shack with the tin roof, somewhat crooked fence, and tiny garden was more than she’d ever imagined having. 

Every morning she got out of their tiny bed with a worn spring mattress and creaky metal bed frame and her feet touched the smooth wooden floorboards. She then walked over to their wood burning stove and used the kettle they’d received as a wedding gift to make coffee. 

The smell of coffee would wake Orpheus, who would come and sleepily give her a good morning kiss. Just having that kind of stability was more than she’d ever dreamed.   
  
Eurydice decided to continue her latest attempt at finding something to do for leisure: whittling. Reading hadn’t caught her interest, and sewing was definitely more Orpheus’s thing. She enjoyed gardening, but knew winter would take that away from her, so she figured this was worth a shot.   
  
She was a decent way into her Bird That Looked Like A Fish when the door opened. “Eurydice I’m back!” Orpheus chimed happily. He knew their house was small enough that she could hear him fine and announcing his presence was unnecessary, but his enthusiasm was charming. “Aunt Persephone told me to say goodbye for her and -” He noticed her sitting on their couch, knife and BirdFish still in hand” “Ooh, what are you making?” He asked. “Hello, Orpheus.” Eurydice said lovingly.

She occasionally felt like she should adress him by pet names like “Dear” or “Honey” but she worried she’d sound stupid. “It was supposed to be a bird, but it’s turning out to be more of an abomination than anything. She answered wryly. 

“Hey,” Orpheus said, sitting down next to her. “I can’t really tell how much you’re joking,” he admitted, looking somewhat ashamed by this fact “But if you’re being more serious, please don’t be that mean to the stuff you make.” He requested quietly.    
  
Eurydice’s heart melted, she immediately put down her work and reached to hold Orpheus’s hand. “I was just joking, don’t worry.” She assured him. “But thanks, that’s really sweet. You’re always really sweet.”   
  
Eurydice was used to being spoken to harshly. Scoldings and criticisms from workers at the orphanage who didn’t feel like dealing with another mouth to feed, threats from foremen barking at her to hurry up and work, crude comments and subsequent scathing insults from sleazy guys who were upset she wasn’t desperate enough to sleep with them in exchange for a place to spend the night.   
  
Even the less horrific moments in her life had tended to be harsh and bleak and full of gallows humor to drown out the howling winds that echoed the things she’d heard for as long as she could remember.

She’d never imagined someone like Orpheus could exist. Surely the world couldn’t be kind enough to anyone to churn out someone like Orpheus. 

  
She knew full well he’d taken more cruelty than he deserved, and she knew it still haunted him. But she still sometimes didn’t realize how harshy she spoke about herself until a concerned Orpheus pointed it out.  
  
  
  
  
The days after the end of spring were grey and rainy. So this was fall, monotony and mud. Wonderful. “Eurydice, are you ok” Orpheus asked one evening. Orpheus was terrified of a misunderstanding between himself and Eurydice. He didn’t want Eurydice to have to hurt without him realizing it. He was better at gauging how she was doing than he gave himself credit for, although she did appreciate his concern. “I’ve been better.” She replied “I’m sick of all this damn rain.” she said, gazing at the night sky from out the window “The sky’s so grey I cant even see the moon.”  
  
“Oh! Oh! Oh oh oh!” Orpheus exclaimed, startling Eurydice. Before she could ask what had him so excited he blurted out “I have a song for this!” and scrambled to get his lyre and make room for Eurydice to sit next to him before remembering to ask “Oh. You, you want to hear a song, right?” “Of course.” Eurydice replied. Orpheus had already succeeded in making her smile.   
  
“Oh, good! I love this one, I didn’t think I’d ever have a situation where it was relevant.” Orpheus said, wiggling slightly with excitement. “Well let’s hear it.” Eurydice said   
  
Orpheus began to strum a simple tune that sort of bounced up and down in this relaxed sort of way. Orpheus started to sing, The lyrics told of a young lover pleading that the moon stay bright during the darkness of the upcoming colder months, just so that the man and his beloved could cuddle underneath the stars, despite the darkness.  
  
Eurydice found the song stuck in her head as they went about their evening. That night as she cuddled up to Orpheus for warmth, she found herself wishing for the light of the harvest moon to shine down.  
  
  
  
The next day the rain had finally stopped. Eurydice was eager to go outside, so she and Orpheus decided to go for a walk. It was cold, but not unbearably so. The chill in the air was actually a refreshing change of pace from the heat of summer. The world seemed fresh and new after the shower it had received.   
  
Orpheus was wearing a worn sweater, Eurydice wondered how long he’d had it. He looked nice in it. Eurydice finished tightly tying her boots only to look up and see orpheus holding up a piece of clothing. “Surprise!” he said as she looked it over. It was a coat, definitely used, but lovingly restored to wearable condition.   
  
“I got it from one of the neighbors, it didn’t fit them anymore but i thought it might fit you?” Orpheus explained “of course I had to fix it up, I hope you don’t mind.” He said   
  
The patches were made of bright yellow fabric. Yellow was her favorite color. She’d never really thought about it until Orpheus asked what her favorite color was. He had a nice, poetic explanation as to why his was purple. She didn’t have any real good reason it was just warm and bright and looking at it made her happy. This made her very happy  
  
One of the buttons must have been missing, because one button was smaller than the rest. It was styled in a shape that looked a bit like a flower.   
  
Eurydice took the coat from Orpheus and tried it on, smiling as she buttoned each button. It felt cozy. Safe, like armor, but also like a hug. “Orpheus I love it, thank you!” Orpheus’s goofy smile at her delight was another gift all on its own. “I’m glad. I knew you were worried about the cold weather, so I thought maybe I could help?” He said, the look in his eyes asking “Did I do a good job?”  
  
“Orpheus that’s so thoughtful, thank you so much” She opened the door and stepped outside. The leaves on the trees were not sparse and dead, but rather they made a gentle gradient from green to yellow. Eurydice smiled. Rows of yellow against a flawlessly blue sky. It was muddy but she didn’t terribly care. She wanted to run down the road, arms outstretched, breathing in the crisp, clean air.   
  
In an act of self restraint, she grabbed Orpheus’s hand and practically pulled him outside, ready to embark on their morning walk. Maybe she’s like fall more than she initially thought.

**Author's Note:**

> sdfghjhgfdfgh Shine On Harvest Moon is one of my fave oldy times songs, I actually first heard it on a record i found thrift shopping. There's a version of it on the full OTGW soundtrack, and a couple other versions on youtube. I still like the thrifted record version best. 
> 
> But uuuh yeah this is basically the fall sequel to A Flower Within my Heart. I hope to write many more fics namedropping old songs. Also i played myself and now i wanna go on a nature walk


End file.
